Wild Rovers was an ambitious but unsuccessful attempt at a Western by
writer-director Blake Edwards. However, Jerry Goldsmith wrote for it one
of his best -- but largely unheralded -- Western scores. I don't know if
he intended it as an homage to Copland, but much of it sounds that way --
even down to his main theme's opening notes that would seem to come directly
from El Salon de Mexico. The 1971 film is about two ranch hands -- played
by William Holden and Ryan O'Neal -- who decide to rob a bank and live high
on the hog, even if only fleetingly, after seeing a fellow cowhand die suddenly
and violently. The film's opening scenes depict their sparse, hardbitten
lifestyle, accompanied on the CD by occasional horse whinnying alongside
Goldsmith's orchestral groans suggestive of a tired cowhand's slow, reluctant
awakening. This leads slowly into the song 'The Wild Rover' which, despite
vocalist Ellen Smith's twangy country-western style, merges eventually with
Goldsmith's music into a wonderfully evocative, lyrical opening piece.

This theme is the backbone of the score, and Goldsmith uses it both economically
and effectively, never more so than in the cue 'Bronco Bustin'' -- a stirring,
set-piece that deservedly has found a place in the composer's concert offerings.
Also noteworthy is 'The Knife' cue, which underscores the scene in which
Holden amputates the wounded O'Neal's leg. Goldsmith perfectly captures the
white-hot glow of the blade and Holden's sweaty-palmed tension with mixed
trngs and woodwinds.

The CD's penultimate cue, 'Final Destination,' features his trademark --
and highly effective -- use of contrasting drums and high strings. It also
includes a ballad 'Texas Rangers'-- again sung by Smith -- which is seemingly
unrelated to the film. All of which may have something to do with the fact
that MGM took Wild Rovers out of director Edwards' hands, in the end, and
released a version apparently very unlike what he'd intended. The ballad
may have made sense at one point, and perhaps was contractually inlcuded
in the original soundtrack album, which this Chapter III Classics release
is drawn from. I can only speculate, because the liner notes offer no comment
on any of the cues!

Although I consider Wild Rovers the more significant of the two scores offered
on this CD, Chapter III has chosen to lead it with The Last Run, which Goldsmith
scored that same year. While I know nothing of the film, it appears to be
about a former getaway driver who takes one, final job. The musical sound
here is clearly the '70s -- lots of strings, often electric but sometimes
solo, slowly enunciating thematic ideas. But get inside this score, just
past the main title, and you'll find music noteworthy as much for Goldsmith's
endlessly inventive orchestration as for its pure loveliness. 'Border Crossing'
opens with a slowly building tension that suddenly explodes about halfway
through its 3-minute running time as Goldsmith dramatically ratchets up the
rhythmic interplay of his various strings, along with a touch of percussive
punctuation. This is followed by a lovely cue, 'Spanish Coast,' for a scene
that must have provided the same geographic inspiration that Goldsmith felt
in The Wind and the Lion, his masterwork of four years later.

'Rickard Escapes' offers more of Goldsmith's muscular orchestration, with
what sounds like a spinnet racing furiously through a maelstrom of strings
and drums. (Again, the liner notes offer no clue to what these cues are about,
but their titles, at least, are descriptive.) The score also contains the
(then obligatory) pop-instrumental version of the main theme as well as song
version, sung here by Steve Lawrence. He's fine, but frankly I enjoyed Ellen
Smith's contributions to Wild Rovers more.

This is one of 25 CDs of MGM film scores from the Turner Classic Movie vaults
that Chapter III Records says it intends to release. Most, like this one,
will be double features - and all, presumably, direct from the original LP
soundtracks. While this is indeed good news, it would be nice to see more
effort put into researching the scores, so that detailed cue descriptions
can be provided. And, while the net result will be more, good scores available
on CD, the apparent plan to limit each release to the half-hour or so contained
on the LP means that some major scores that long have deserved to be heard
in more complete form may never be available in that format. Given that these
scores belong to Turner Classic Movie Music which, in association with Rhino
Movie Music, has offered some of the best full-score releases of epic scores
(along with exquisitely detailed liner notes!), this could be a serious loss.
Keep your fingers crossed.